Misdirected bowling

Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett seemed to have all sorts of problems at Lords in finding a decent line, but in the India game yesterday Ramesh Powar went one better and managed to get the ball to go to mid-off despite completing a full rotation of his arm - that was pretty special I thought.

What is it about the bowling these days? Comparatively the standard of batting in Test Cricket seems so much higher than the bowling and with McGrath and Warne gone things will only get worse in the bowling department. I wonder how these things come about....will we find the bowlers on top of the batsmen in a decade and sides bowled out for 120 all the time?

India go 2-0 up

Not too much to report from today's game. You can view the Cricinfo scorecard here.

India got what wasn't much more than a par score on a decent wicket, 284 in a game reduced to 49 overs each, but still beat Bangladesh by 46 runs. Gautam Ghambir was the hero, scoring 101 while, like Dhoni two days ago, batting with a runner for part of his innings due to cramp. Fortunately this time, there were no wrong umpiring decisions that changed the result of the game.

The spinners Chowla (10-0-37-3) and Powar (10-1-32-1) put the squeeze on Bangladesh's reply which never really got going, right from the opening wicket where Iqbal ran like a schoolboy as he'd middled it to mid-off. He was rightly sent back and run out comfortably. Habibal Bashar top scored with 43 which says it all - there wasn't a decent partnership to help Bangladesh get close. The Indian leg-spinner, Chowla, at just 18, looks like one to watch for the future. Once he bowled over the wicket rather than his inexplicable decision to start round-the-wicket, he looked a threat at all times and the Bangladeshis didn't pick his googly very well.

Fashion statement

Ramesh Powar needs to change his sunglasses. So says my wife. I think they just make him look stupid. But she tells me there is a reason for that - red doesn't go with the light blue India ODI strip. Apparently Youvaj Singh's black sunglasses work a little better with the strip.

You can see Mr Powar's sunglasses here. Ramesh - my wife is available at a fee to be your fashion consultant!